Sunday, December 27, 2015

Every single time I stop by Whole Foods, I must have one of their chocolate croissants. For as long as I could remember, I really wanted to bake a dairy-free version so that Brek could enjoy them as well. After I mastered the art of croissant dough, I ventured into baking variety of savory and sweet croissants. Nothing compare to chocolate croissants. They really do take the cake. Not only are they relatively easy to make, they are so addicting. Making the chocolate croissants are pretty much the same technique as making mini-croissants. The difference between two of my recipes is the shape of the croissants. If you prefer the classic croissant shape, you can certainly make them that way. You may need to use less chocolate chunks. No change to baking time.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Since it is nearly the end of 2015, I'd like to dedicate the last two posts to my favorite dessert, chocolate croissants. But first, let's learn how to bake regular croissants.

When I was on Camden's allergy free diet, I really missed eating bread. As I mastered the art of pizza dough and bao dough, I wanted to try croissant dough as well.

At first, I really hated making croissant dough. For a butter substitute, I used coconut oil which could be temperament. Can't expect much from oil when making the yeast dough, you know? The croissants were the thing of the past in my kitchen. It wasn't until I started using palm shortening for dairy substitute that I realized the potential of making a really flakey croissants again.

Sure enough, I was right. NOW, the croissant dough is super easy to make. Nothing more than making a pizza dough. The challenge may occur when folding laminated dough as the palm shortening may oozed out, especially in the Texas warm weather. But seriously, don't let that keep you from making some croissants from scratch.

So this post will be about making the croissant dough. Then I will teach you how to make mini-croissants. Next week, I'll post a recipe for the chocolate croissants. So let's bake!!!

Dairy-Free Croissants Dough

3/4 cup (6 oz.) coconut milk (105° to 115°F)

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 1/2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 3/4 cup (7 oz.) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/8 - 1/4 cup (1 - 2 oz.) palm shortening

In a large bowl, mix the milk, yeast, and sugar. Set aside until the mixture is foamy, about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on a room temperature.

In another bowl, sift together the flour and salt.

Add the flour to the yeast mixture.

Mix until the dough is formed.

Knead the dough on the non-stick mat until it comes together, about a minute.

Place the dough back into a bowl and allow it to rest to double its size, about an hour, depending on a room temperature.

Once ready, knead the dough again.

Place the dough on the non-stick mat. Dust the dough with flour as needed to prevent sticking.

Roll the dough out to about 9 by 15 inch (original size). TIP: No need to be accurate as the dough will need to be measure and cut to size.

Spread the shortening over the left half of the dough, making sure to leave about 1/2 inch boarder (see picture 1). NOTE: I use about 1.5 oz. palm shortening. The more shortening, the more flakey the croissants will be.

Fold the other half of the dough over to shortening.

Press to seal the edges.

Fold it again from the short side.

Roll out the dough to the original size, careful not the allow the shortening to ooze out of the dough. TIP: During the summer, place the dough in the fridge for about 5 to 10 minutes to allow the shortening to harden a bit.

Fold the dough half way then roll out the dough to the original size. NOTE: As the dough is folded over and over again, the dough will have more layers. When baked, the layers will puff up and create that classic croissant layers.

The dough is ready to use in making savory and sweet croissants.

Mini-Croissants

makes 16

1 croissant dough

1/2 cup warm water

1 teaspoon baking soda

Line the baking pan with non-stick mat or parchment paper. TIP: Be sure to use baking pan with rims so the melted shortening will stay inside the pan and not drip on to the oven floor.

Roll the croissant dough out to 9 x 15 inch.

Cut the dough into 8 equal part (see picture 2).

For each square, cut it into 2 triangles.

Starting from the long side, roll the dough upward to meet the short end.

Place it on the prepared pan then curve the shape a bit to take on the classic croissant shape.

Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Allow the dough to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes. NOTE: In a hurry? Go head and preheat the oven while the dough is resting in the fridge (or at a room temperature during winter months).

Once ready, preheat the oven to 400F degrees.

Make the baking soda wash by dissolving the baking soda to warm water.

Brush the baking soda wash over the croissant dough.

Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Allow the croissants to rest for 5 minutes. Enjoy them while they are piping hot or warm.

STORING: Keep the mini-croissants in a container at a room temperature for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 7 days.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Last week, Grandpa and I were chatting about breakfast sweets. What would be delicious, not too sweet, to pair with a cup of coffee?

We flipped through the William Sonoma's Essential of Baking and came across the picture of dried cherry-chocolate muffins. I told Grandpa that I baked these muffins before... two years ago... for Brek's school breakfast. So I convinced him to test this recipe again.

I substituted few ingredients to the original recipe. Instead of dried cherry (which can be pretty pricey), I added cranberry. For dairy free butter milk, I taught Grandpa to add vinegar to coconut milk. Substitute sunflower oil for melted butter.

I picked up a trick in baking with chocolate from Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa's cooking show. She always adds instant espresso powder to bring out the chocolate flavor. I told Grandpa to test this out by adding a teaspoon of it.

How did the muffins turn out? Grandpa convinced that adding the instant espresso really did bring out the chocolate flavor. And the tart from the cranberries balanced well with the sweetness of the chocolate. Brek luvs the muffins too. He asked if he could have it for his school breakfast. Of course!!!

Please note that there will be enough muffin batter to make more than 12 muffins. Another option to leftover batter is to bake the mini muffins, baking them about 7-10 minutes. My kids luv anything mini. Not only of the cuteness but they are just the right amount for their little tummies. But seriously, I think they just luv the mini anything because of the cuteness.

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Last year, I blogged about my egg salad puff, using choux or puff shells as bread. I made changes to recipe to make them savory, but it got me thinking.

I really luv those eclairs at the café, filled with creamy goodness and chocolate ganache on top. I made the sweet version of cream puffs before, but Brek didn't like it. He said that the puffs tasted plain. I agreed.

After looking at the choux recipe, all of the sweet ones have such a tiny amount or no sugar at all. I decided to test several recipes and came up with my own dairy free version. Adding sugar to the choux dough really elevates the sweets in the eclairs. My kids actually prefer eating the baked choux without the filling or frosting. Hey, less work for me, right?

Make sure to use coconut butter and not coconut oil as the butter has more body than the oil. And have a hand towel ready as it can get pretty messy eating these little sweets.

About Me

I've been cooking and baking extensively due to my son's food intolerence to dairy, chicken eggs, and corn. He outgrew all of his food sensitivity when he was nearly three years old. Since he has G6PD, he also needs to avoid certain foods as much as possible. His big brother still has dairy intolerance. So I decided to run a food blog to share my recipes that I've modified or created on my own. I hope you test out my recipes and have yummilicious good time like my kids and I do. If you have a Facebook account, look for me at Something Sweeter page.